Ray Ison, Professor in Systems at the UK Open University since 1994, is a member of the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group. From 2008-15 he also developed and ran the Systemic Governance Research Program at Monash University, Melbourne. In this blog he reflects on contemporary issues from a systemic perspective.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Fancy a Conference in Vienna?

5th International Heinz von Foerster Congress.

Again, the University of Vienna will be the venue of discussions on the efforts as well as the effects of Heinz von Foerster's work and life.

It is only one of the special aims of this year's conference to celebrate von Foerster's 100th birthday. As to celebrating his work, we deem it appropriate to start with implications of Heinz von Foerster's early works, as represented by his early quantum-physical interpretation of memory and by his seminal work on self-organizing systems in the early 1960ies. Accordingly, this year's conference moves along two quite different and nevertheless related tracks

• Emergence and self organisation in the worlds of society and nature (primarily targeted audience: specialists in sciences and humanities, and a general audience); convened by Albert Müller and Karl H. Müller

The conference will take place at the main building of the University of Vienna from 10th to 13th November 2011. There will be special seminars before and after the conference, and a series of documentary films on topics related to cybernetics to be seen at a Viennese cinema.

Registration is possible from now onwards. To register as a participant of the conference, please send an informal e-mail to hvf11.zeitgeschichte@univie.ac.at using 'registration' as a subject line. There is no registration or entrance fee.

The 5th International Heinz von Foerster Conference is sponsored by the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research, the City of Vienna, and Blaha Büromöbel. Co-organizers are the Heinz von Foerster Society, WISDOM, Dept. of Contemporary History, University of Vienna, Austrian Institute for Nonlinear Studies in cooperation with the American Society for Cybernetics.

We ask you to distribute this information among your respective communities

The American Society of Cybernetics recently received the following request. Does this represent an upsurge in interest or further uncritical pursuit of all things cybernetic as with Adam Curtis? Any offers?

"My name is Claire Perrier and I am currently working with the filmmaker Philippe Borrel who is directing a 90 minute documentary about the convergent technologies revolution for the French and German cultural channel Arte TV. I am in charge of the research and collecting of the archive video footage. The film is produced by the French production company Cinétévé and will be broadcasted in 2012.

The filmmaker will talk in his film about the beginning and the history of the cybernetic sciences and researches. I am looking for some archival footage that would tell this story : interviews from the first cybernetic scientists like Norbert Wiener, the Macy conferences, other meetings, researches, interviews, archival news, etc... Anything that would allow us to tell this story and show how the cybernetics started. We are looking for archival footage, but if none existed, we would also be interested in archival photographies.

I would be very grateful to you if you could tell me who I should contact for this research or where I could find such archives.

Thanks a lot for your answer and please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any further information regarding this project.

Thanks to the Daily Telegraph's Chief Political Correspondent it is possible to gain useful insight's into how Rupert Murdoch and News Corp have operated so successfully within the realm of political power. My thanks to Roy Madron for drawing it to my attention.

Simon Caulkin adds additonal useful insights (seeSuicide bomb at Wapping: family mansion in flames). Simon asks whether the challenge to democracy that News Corp has come to be could have been exposed if a newspaper chain that operated as a Trust (rather than as a fully private business intent on maximising shareholder return) did not exist? It was after all the Guardian and particularly Guardian journalist Nick Davies who have done the most to bring about this expose.

Bob Cavana writes: 'Just a short note to let you know that our deadline for papers, posters, workshops etc for the ANZAM conference (in Wellington on 7-9 December 2011) has now been extended until 21 July 2011.